Andy

English (Fluent)

日本語 (Intermediate)

My name is Andy (Yoshinkan Aikido 4th Dan). I have been practicing Aikido for eight years, two of which I spent training full time with the Tokyo riot police.

Aikido is the art of the peaceful warrior. Aikido training aims to enable practitioners to effectively control an attack without causing damage or pain. Its practice involves not just physical training but a unique philosophy and a deeper understanding of Japanese culture.I have since been training and teaching under world-renowned teacher Jacques Payet Sensei.

One of the things I like most about Aikido is that anyone can do it, from child to senior citizen it has a lot to teach about using your body’s natural strength.

1 Reviews for Andy

With japan being home to so many martial arts I wanted to experience a few on my short trip there, the introductory aikido lesson was one of them. The dojo was easy to find, located very close to the kyoto impartial space park, the booking process was easy and the communication once booked was also great.

I found this was very different to the other experiences I had done in japan, in that it was less of a tourist activity session but more of a proper introductory lesson. I was fortunate enough to have two instructors training just myself, one so kindly did the falling so I did not have to! This meant right from the start I was able to learn defence techniques, which I may not have mastered in that short time, as they may take years to, but even in that short time i was given excellent instruction on how to refine my actions. All the way through my posture and stance were being corrected to give me the most stability, which was illustrated with a few practical excercises. This had applications to daily life and are things I should consider even when sitting at my desk at work. Near the end of the session I was asked if there was any particular techniques or defence I would like to know about which gave me something extra useful to take away.

The instructors were very kind, patient and considerate all the way through, I walked into the dojo with a knee support visible, and they were very considerate of this through the lesson. There were no moments of pain as one may have expected with wrist lock type movements, the instructors stressed all the way through that aikido is not about inflicting pain. Even when the techniques were demonstrated on me to help me understand, they were done so expertly and slowly with no distress. The techniques also did not require physical strength. I was free to ask plenty of questions if I did not understand something and they found different ways to explain it to me.

At the end of the session for the last ten minutes we sat down to a cup of Japanese tea, which was a nice opportunity to talk to the instructors informally, which was a nice end to this aikido introduction.